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Regional Map Practice

Hi All. A few people asked me to do a tut on the mountain technique I used in my March challenge entry. I intend to get a tut up very soon but decided to do a practice run first to make sure I know how I got there. As expected I cant seem to get the same look whenever I try to. It always turns out a little different. Anyway, this was the result. I would love feedback, especially on the effect of having the light land colours as shallow water, swamp or channels, outside the land border.

The only question that I have, is what are the bumpy areas on the highlands? Is it supposed to be trees or hills. If it is hills, it doesn't quite work with the rest of the map, and if it is woodlands, then you have to color them differently than the background.

The only question that I have, is what are the bumpy areas on the highlands? Is it supposed to be trees or hills. If it is hills, it doesn't quite work with the rest of the map, and if it is woodlands, then you have to color them differently than the background.

Originally Posted by Jykke

I like the color tones on this map.. what I would like to know () is what the small dotty bumps are representing (especially on the mountain areas) ?

The reason I would love to give you is that that is rough ground reflecting ragged lands. However the reason I should give is found in the underlying bump map that I use. I use Wilbur to generate a ridge perlin heightfield. In order to get the rivers looking right with lots of bends, rather than straight I add noise, following one of Waldonate's tutorials. I only select the basins to add the noise because applying the noise to the mountains gives them a grainy look that doesn't work too well. Its the noise added to the greyscale heightfield that causes the bumps. I like the look on the mountains themselves but dont really like it in the lowlands.